Capitalism supports economic prosperity and is grounded in scripture, economist Anne Bradley argued in a lecture hosted by Praxis. 

Bradley is the George and Sally Mayer fellow for economic education and academic director at the Fund for American Studies. In the Feb. 26 talk, titled “The Biblical Case for Economic Freedom,” Bradley claimed that capitalism advances technological development and human flourishing. 

“A society cannot be rich and prosperous when the greater part of its population is poor and suffering,” she said. “For the city to prosper, its individual inhabitants have to have the opportunity to prosper.”

Bradley said she believes the modern discipline of economics stems from the idea that God has gifted the world to individuals by endowing them with human capital, which she defined as the economic value of an individual’s innate talents or abilities.

“We all have to bring our own unique bundle of human capital to the table,” Bradley said. “In a market economy, we must put that to the test of the market. Our job is to do that with integrity.”

Bradley said while capitalism is imperfect, it is the economic system through which Christians can best serve others. 

“We benefit the public good more when we pursue our own self-interest under the right set of institutions,” she said. 

All societies have finite resources, according to Bradley. 

“We live in a world of scarcity,” she said. “That means there’s no free lunch. There’s always a cost. There’s no heaven on earth. There’s no utopia.”

Bradley said successful economic systems support the harnessing of human capital. In turn, this allows for humanity to fulfill the biblical mandate to be fruitful and multiply. 

“There’s no such thing as economic destiny. It was only about 250 years ago that economic growth even really got going for most countries,” Bradley said. “But there are tragic stories like Venezuela, which was the richest country in Latin America, and now it has less economic freedom than Syria. That’s by deciding to pursue institutions and policies that defy our anthropology and defy economics. These ideas need defense. They need vigilance.” 

Bradley said she sees the state as the biggest threat to the family, instead of any market-based system. 

“Sixty-five years of welfare has eroded low-income families by intervening in their choices and basically institutionalizing out-of-wedlock births,” she said. “To look at countries like China, the biggest threat to the Chinese family is the one-child policy, which left a generation of no girls because it resulted in gender-selective abortions. They’re going to have a decades-long demographic and economic crisis as a result. What could destroy the family more than that?”

Professor of Economics Ivan Pongracic said some Christians who are unfamiliar with economics object to what his department teaches because they interpret the notion of self-interest as selfish and antithetical to Christianity. He said the objections seem silly.  

“It’s built in that if you think about loving your neighbor as yourself, there’s an acknowledgement right there that you love yourself, and that’s an inescapable part of life, and that’s how we were created by God,” he said. “And yet, it seems it’s so easy to miss for people. It’s like they want self-denial of some sort, where there is no self-love.” 

Junior Stephanie Zamora said she appreciated how Bradley demonstrated that human flourishing is often taken for granted. 

“God wants us to flourish,” Zamora said. “And that doesn’t just mean not being at war, that means being economically prosperous.”

Zamora said the talk reminded her of her father, who was raised in Cuba. She said he tells stories about his experiences in a communist society with extreme food rationing.

“They would be given a ticket to get food for the month. And that would get you one small chicken or four potatoes for an entire month. And you had to make do with that, and he would have to stand in outrageous lines to get food,” she said. “I’m from Orlando, and to this day, he doesn’t like going to any of the theme parks because he doesn’t like standing in line.”